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EECS Assistant Professor Receives CAREER Award

Rainer Doemer, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine, has been honored by the National Science Foundation with a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.Doemer was recognized for his research in modeling embedded computer systems, specifically, “Result-Oriented System-Level Modeling for Efficient Design of Embedded Systems.”

Embedded computer systems are around us everyday, ranging from video-enabled mobile phones to real-time automotive applications to reliable medical devices. Modeling is the first step in building these products. Just like the quality of an architectural blue-print determines the quality of the resulting building, the model of an embedded system is the key to its successful implementation.

Doemer’s CAREER award will support a project that he hopes will move research and education on embedded system design forward in the area of system-level specification and modeling. While traditional work largely has focused on simulation and synthesis from a given system model, his project addresses the creation and optimization of the model itself for effective use in existing design processes. The results of his project will be directly applicable to established system design flows in the industry and fit well into existing and new courses in computer engineering education.

Doemer’s research optimizes the modeling of embedded systems by using four novel techniques. First, it embraces a new model of computation, named ConcurrenC, which refines the generic capabilities of common C-based, system-level description languages. The creation of the system model is then automated by using computer-aided re-coding, a new technique that generates essential parts of the model automatically.

The efficiency of the model is optimized using Result-Oriented Modeling (ROM) which, in contrast to the traditional Transaction-Level Modeling (TLM), offers highest simulation speed and accuracy so that the system designer can quickly evaluate his design decisions. The project also investigates TLM of computation, an emerging research area that promises to build better products in shorter amount of time.